I had a doctors visit on the 5th, and was dilated to a 3 and 80 percent effaced which is how I had been the last several weeks. I decided to have him strip my membranes and hope that I would go into labor in the next 24 hours. Knowing that this probably wouldn't happen, I called my parents and told them that I wanted to induce on the 7th. This was a week earlier than they planned so I knew it would throw off their work schedules etc. The hospital only had one opening. They said they could make it down to take care of the boys, so we went ahead and scheduled the induction.
My parents made it down late Thursday night the 6th. Dan and I barely got any sleep that night, then woke up to a snow storm. Sardine Canyon was bad enough that it made us 20 minutes late for our induction time of 9am.
We got to McKayDee hospital in Ogden and got settled in. Having this be my third induction in 3 years it was just the same as before. They got me hooked right up and started the petocin. The girl in the room next to me had my same doctor, Wes Davis, so he planned to come in at noon, break our waters, then go into surgery while we labored for a few hours.
My contractions are never very bad on petocin. So Dan and I just hung out waiting for the doctor. Dan took some work calls etc. Nothing too exciting. Dr Davis came at 12:15 pm and broke my water, still dilated to a 3. Within minutes the contractions were hitting hard. Knowing how fast I went after having the epidural with Tommy, I was trying to hold off having it since Dr Davis was now in surgery.
The pain won out quickly as the contractions were hitting hard and fast. I asked for the epidural and he came in almost immediately to administer it. It was now 12:35 pm and I was dying. The pain was incredible. I kept pushing the pain button but nothing was happening. Then my back started to hurt so bad. This horrible, deep pain. Then I had to push. By now I was crying as I'm telling the nurse that I have to push. At this point I'm still pretty sure the epidural was NOT working.
The nurse kept telling my not to push, but it made the contractions 10 times more painful to fight the urge to push. I was begging her to let me push. The poor nurse was paging anyone and everyone to try to get someone there to deliver the baby. She had an intern in shadowing her, and she was trying to talk this poor new gal through how to set up the incubator since the nurse was prepping to deliver. About that time, the on-call doctor walked in, and not 30 seconds later, by some miracle, Dr Davis appeared.
I was writhing in pain. Dr Davis was ready in a blink and told me I could push. We didn't even worry about stirrups and positions and all that fun stuff, he just told me to do what I felt I needed to do. So with the next contraction, not that there was really any space between them, I pushed. I cannot even begin to describe the pain I felt. I had hoped it would be a relief being able to push through the pain but that was not the case. I stopped pushing because the pain was too bad. By this point I was hysterically crying. The doctor and Dan were telling me I needed to push and hard, that I needed to get him here.
So I pushed. I could feel myself ripping in two as my sobbing grew loud and panicked. Even as I write this, I still cry just remembering it. Inside I was screaming "Get him out! Get him out!" I think I only actually screamed it once, as I was pushing with all my might, knowing that I was tearing in two. I felt the head slip past, then another sharp stab of pain as the shoulders passed. And then, sweet relief. He pulled the placenta out and my body finally relaxed. It was like breathing for the first time in minutes. It was 1:05pm, 50 minutes after having my water broken.
I remember him saying it was a boy, and he cried out a good healthy cry right away. Dan cut the umbilical cord. I was still crying softly trying to pull myself together. They handed this beautiful baby to me right away for skin to skin contact. I hate admitting it, but my first thought was, no. I was so out of myself, I can't even really describe it, but I needed a minute to recoup from what just happened. But I held him close and soon my body, mind and nerves started to calm.
At this point, feeling scared to death, I asked the doctor how bad the damage was. I knew he was going to tell me it was a 4th degree tear, which is the worst. Instead, he said I was just fine, no tearing at all! It was a miracle. Other than being numb for a really long time after delivery, my recovery was so easy. I had an ice pack once, and I took pain killer only because the cramping was so bad.
Honestly, I can't tell you if the epidural worked at all or not. All I know, is that if that experience was not natural child birth, then I don't ever want to experience it. And whatever I did experience, I don't ever want to experience it again.
My parents and the boys came to visit that afternoon. Eddie was quite shy and alarmed by the situation, and Tommy really didn't care. He just wanted to climb around and play with the door. Then Dan's family came to visit that night. We stayed all day Saturday then Dan came and took us home on Sunday. Dan stayed at home to be with the boys, and family just visited here and there. The nurses bug you so much that it wouldn't do any good to have anyone stay the night with me. And I was feeling so great anyway that I didn't need the extra help getting around.
All in all it was quite the experience. I'm just so grateful that it was quick, and he was healthy. And yes, we left the hospital without naming him. We spent 2 grueling days with name books, and a name board, and all the nurses trying to help us come up with something. I really wanted Daniel Cole, but we decided having 2 in our family named Daniel would be too confusing in a lot of cases.
He was 7 pounds 10 ounces, and just beautiful. He has dark hair and a lot of it. Well, a mullet of it anyways! He was a good eater right off the bat and is only a little jaundice.
So here is Baby Boy Cardall!!!
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